


The ring

by Hypatia_66



Category: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (TV)
Genre: Episode Related, Gen, Rings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-20 14:52:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15536658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hypatia_66/pseuds/Hypatia_66
Summary: (What's) with this ring...





	The ring

One of the many mysteries that enwrapped Napoleon’s enigmatic Russian partner was the simple gold band that he wore on his left hand. It was a source of much interest among the female UNCLE employees. Napoleon was often asked by these damsels if he knew its secrets. He would always look knowing and say he couldn’t reveal them but actually he didn’t know, and didn’t know how to ask without seeming to pry into the depths of his partner’s closely guarded privacy. Illya's maintaining total silence on the matter, the secrecy surrounding it was a challenge to a spy.

Napoleon’s own private life was a fairly open book, Illya’s was locked away, chained and barred. There were girls, to be sure. Napoleon had met one or two of them and was almost sure that he had more than once interrupted some passionate exchange of felicity with an unfortunately-timed call. Illya naturally never switched his communicator off but there was sometimes a delay before he responded and an aggrieved or a distracted tone in his voice when he did. Nothing was ever said, either at the time or afterwards, and though Illya was quite capable of commenting on Napoleon’s love life there was no reciprocal permission to discuss _his_.

He wore it on the third finger of his left hand but, even so, it seemed unlikely that it was a wedding ring. Napoleon didn’t think Russian men wore them at all – it was a fairly modern fashion, and more common in America than in Europe; and anyway, in Europe wedding rings were worn on the right hand – Illya had worn it on that hand during the Paris affair, possibly for that reason, though who knew? Nor was it likely to be his mother’s wedding ring – it was a man’s ring, and Illya had big hands. And there was no dragging out of him anything about his family. Napoleon had no idea whether either of Illya’s parents was even alive.

<><><> 

“I see you’ve changed your ring to your right hand, again,” Napoleon observed casually. They were sitting at a café table on the island of Circe.

“Mm?” said Illya. But before Napoleon could pursue it, the waiter came to take their order and then a piglet turned up and the moment was lost. It remained on his right hand until the day they completed the mission when Napoleon saw that it once more adorned Illya’s left hand.

On another occasion, during what they referred to as the King of Diamonds affair, Illya changed it from left to right several times. Napoleon was increasingly intrigued, though he did wonder if Illya was doing it as a tease to see if his partner had noticed. He said nothing, however, just continued to observe.

After that, for a while it was mostly on Illya’s right hand, then mostly on his left, and occasionally he switched it several times in a day. Was it a signal? Perhaps it was some male equivalent of La Dame aux Caméllias – a sign of his availability or the opposite – and if so, to whom?  The idea seemed plausible, though there were plenty of occasions when the symbolism would have been completely redundant. Once, in disguise, he left it on then apparently remembered it and took it off again - or had it been caught in the false beard?

Another time, when Illya was swapping his gun from hand to hand during a fire fight, it occurred to Napoleon that maybe it was something to do with his ambidexterity. Perhaps he took it off when he washed his hands and didn’t care which hand he put it back on.

Was Illya superstitious? – Definitely not, Napoleon believed, but that angle might be worth pursuing. Having a spare moment, he went to the library to look up the symbolism of ring-wearing. There was an enormous amount of nonsense about rings and several elements that appeared to be common to all the theories. He read that, worn on the left hand, its power went straight to the heart. Hmm, a likely story. A ring could be variously a talisman, a symbol of power, an attraction for love and happiness; it could have healing powers, or offer protection from evil, especially if it were inherited from your mother – though Napoleon failed to see how that equated to the apparently negative effects of inheriting it from a dead person. He also couldn’t see his practical, down-to-earth, feet-on-the-ground, sceptic of a partner believing a single word of it. He probably picked it up somewhere and found that it fitted. But why wear it at all?

Along the way, Napoleon found much to interest him in the symbolism of his own ring. Did he wear it on his active hand? What was an active hand? He wasn’t sure he wanted to know but, if you did, it meant you had great negotiating skills and ability to express yourself. On the other hand (the limp hand?), it meant you had strong intuition and great listening skills. He was none the wiser for trying to work it out and thought of acquiring a ring for his right hand, just in case.

But it was when Illya met that crazy girl Sylvia, the one who did a portrait of him, that he stopped wearing it altogether for a while. He couldn’t have dropped it among the soapsuds that nearly drowned him, or on that balloon flight, because he wore it again later. Maybe he put it back as a sign their little affair was about to end?

Then he stopped wearing it altogether and Napoleon forgot to think about it until it suddenly reappeared during that weird business with the presidential candidate’s wife. Now, why? Who was he signalling? Or was he just being Illya – mysterious and enigmatic?

Napoleon watched him carefully for several weeks after his hands once more became ring-free. Perhaps the summer heat caused his fingers to swell; perhaps it was rheumatism or arthritis. Had he become allergic to gold? Nobody was allergic to gold. It was none of those things, stupid. It was just Illya.

It was also very frustrating. Napoleon decided it was becoming an obsession – he should get it over with and just risk asking him.

<><><> 

“Where’s your ring?” said Napoleon, looking at Illya’s hands on the steering wheel.

“Why do you ask?”

“I’m just curious – I’m a spy, remember.”

“Curiosity killed the cat, Napoleon.”

<><><><>

**Author's Note:**

> The references are to “The see-Paris-and-die affair”, The deadly goddess affair”, “The King of Diamonds affair”, “The super-colossal affair”, “The pop art affair”, “The candidate’s wife affair”.


End file.
